Star Wars Zero Company, which one might colloquially refer to as “the XCOM Star Wars game,” got a full reveal today at a panel at Star Wars Celebration Japan. As for why one might refer to the game in that way, it’s because Greg Foertsch — the CEO and Creative Director of Bit Reactor, which is the studio making the game — previously worked on multiple major turn-based games at Firaxis, including the XCOM franchise.
“Our vision for Star Wars Zero Company is grounded in gameplay design pillars that weave in the immersive Star Wars galaxy with engaging turn-based tactics gameplay,” said Foertsch, according to a press release sent to Polygon. “It’s our aim to deliver a game with an original Star Wars story from the Clone Wars era that has meaningful outcomes from player choices, and deep turn-based tactical combat with an approachable and cinematic presentation.”
The protagonist of this single-player game is a character named Hawks, a former Republic officer who must command “an unconventional outfit of professionals for hire hailing from across the galaxy.” This ragtag squad is the titular Zero Company; its members must “set aside their differences to overcome nearly impossible odds and take on an emerging threat that will consume the galaxy if left unchecked.”
The game’s structure, as described in the press release, sounds refreshingly similar to the XCOM games: “Players will embark on a campaign of tactical operations and investigations across the galaxy. Between missions, they will develop a base of operations and gather intelligence through a network of informants to stay one step ahead of Zero Company’s adversaries. Players will have the freedom to create and customize their own squad of recruited operators while getting to know a cast of newly authored Star Wars characters.“
The best part of all that, at least according to this author, is the “newly authored Star Wars characters” aspect. I’d be fine if no recognizable Star Wars mainstays showed up in this, and instead we got to play through a wholly original side story. Andor, for example, is full of totally new characters and stories told within the wider universe of Star Wars, and that’s one of the many things that feels so fresh about it. One can only hope Zero Company takes a page out of that same book.
We’ll have to wait a while to find out, though, as Zero Company doesn’t yet have a release date, and its release window is simply 2026. The game, which Bit Reactor is developing in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games, will be released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X.
